The Three Weeks
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The Three Weeks or Bein ha-Metzarim (Hebrew: בין המצרים, "Between the Straits" or "In Dire Straits") is a period of mourning commemorating the destruction of the first and second Jewish Temples. The Three Weeks start on the seventeenth day of the Jewish month of Tammuz — the fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz — and end on the ninth day of the Jewish month of Av — the fast of Tisha B'Av, which occurs exactly three weeks later. Both of these fasts commemorate events surrounding the destruction of the Jewish Temples and the subsequent exile of the Jews from the land of Israel. According to conventional chronology, the destruction of the first Temple, by Nebuchadrezzar II, occurred in 586 BCE, and the second, by the Romans, in 70 CE. Jewish chronology, however, traditionally places the first destruction at about 421 BCE. (See Missing years (Hebrew calendar) for more information.)
Jewish law forbids taking a haircut, shaving or listening to music during this time. No Jewish marriages are allowed during the Three Weeks, since the joy of such an event would conflict with the expected mood of mourning during this time.
The first source for a special status of the Three Weeks - which is also the oldest extant reference to these days as Bein ha-Metzarim - is found in Eikhah Rabbathi 1.29 (Lamentations Rabbah, fourth century CE?). This midrash glosses Lamentations 1.3, "All [Zion's] pursuers overtook her between the straits," interpreting "straits" as "days of distress" - namely the Seventeenth of Tammuz and the Ninth of Av .
The last nine days of the three weeks — the first nine days of the month of Av — constitute a period of more intense mourning, leading up to the fast of Tisha B'Av. This final period is known as the Nine Days. During the Nine Days, animal meat is not eaten (fish is permitted), wine is not consumed, freshly laundered clothes are not worn and, under Ashkenazi custom, warm baths are not taken. Sephardic tradition observes these restrictions beginning the Sunday before Tisha B'Av and dispenses of them entirely on years when Tisha B'Av falls on a Sunday.
Many Orthodox Jews refrain from eating meat until the day after the fast, based on the tradition that the Temple burned until that time.
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| Jewish holidays | Shabbat · Rosh Chodesh · Rosh Hashanah · Fast of Gedalia · Yom Kippur · Sukkot · Hoshanah Rabbah · Shemini Atzeret · Simchat Torah · Hanukkah · Tenth of Tevet · Tu Bishvat · Fast of Esther · Purim · Fast of the Firstborn · Pesach · Counting of the Omer · Lag Ba'omer · Shavuot · 17th of Tammuz · The Three Weeks · The Nine Days · Tisha B'Av · Tu B'Av |
| National holidays of Israel | Jerusalem Day · Yom HaShoah Yom Hazikaron · Yom Ha'atzmaut |
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